Placement Mentor Teacher: Questions and Answers on Assessment

How do you feel about Assessment?

I think assessment is an important tool. It can actually inform your teaching and
it can also be a way of seeing what the students already know. It is a way of
showing what they have progressed through their learning. It also shows you
areas in which you need to cater for. So for example we use assessment in grade
4 to look at our data and plan our term out. So for example we are currently
looking at our reading data that we got from an assessment piece called CARS
and that assesses the children in their reading strategies, so making inferences,
finding facts and opinions, but it shows the children’s areas of need. So it is a
really important thing to use and inform our teaching rather then just going in
and teaching blind.

Does Assessment help you learn?

Definitely it tells us about the student and what they know. It’s a way of going
into areas of need and catering for what they need, differentiation.

How do you plan for assessment?

We have are given a prescribed assessment schedule from the school with what
year level and what assessment tasks need to be completed and we go by that.
Sometimes there are other assessment tasks we need to get done just to give us a
better picture of our student. I keep drawing on reading for an example, but we
have new students coming in, we get the director of teaching to take them and
they do separate assessment tasks, like reading comprehension, even
phonogram codes, things like that, we assess them on a needs basis as well as
what we are prescribed to do. The way we plan for assessment in actually
delivering the assessment, as a team in our PLT weekly meetings we actually talk
as a group and we suggest by week that we need to complete X and we plan it
around that way so we are not impeding other things as well. We do have a lot
of assessment at our primary school. Lots and lots and it’s helpful but we do need
to make sure we fit it in as well, scheduling it in properly.

What kinds of Assessment are they?

Oh we have plenty.
For maths for example we have just done in our rotations, as a team we have
decided we all wanted a post-test, a formal post test of all the topics we have
covered in our maths rotations. That wasn’t prescribed from the school to do,
that was purely to see what we have actually taught, more of a summative
assessment. We use an online tool called essential assessment, in which, the
school subscribes with and that is an online test for maths with the different
branches of number and algebra, statistics, probability and geometry, so that
gives us a really good strong picture as to what they know in different areas. It
also links to the Australian curriculum and it gives us the codes in which the
areas they need more, you know, more support in or areas they have mastered,
way of differentiating again. In grade 4 we do running records just to monitor
student reading comprehension and level.
How do you plan an assessment task?
When we are planning an assessment task we don’t just plan it at one level. For
example with the written post test that we did for maths rotations was we
started off with the basic concepts and we included some lower questions and
higher questions. Like low, middle and high at each stage and middle is at
expected and high if for the students to show that they know those concepts and
can excel further, and its shows the areas they need to work on within those
concepts.

What do you think of NAPLAN?

My opinion on NAPLAN is controversial. I think it is very subjective, the results,
my reasons being, it’s a one day test, that child could come in and not have slept
all night and they are exhausted. I have had children in the past when I taught
grade Three, sit their and just cry because they were so overwhelmed by the
concept of it. Whereas other children really fly and they love it. I don’t
necessarily think it is a great indicator of the actual child’s ability because it is a
very linear test. It is targeted at those children who can sit still and complete the
test for how ever long it needs to go for , where as there are other children who
are learners by being visual, kinaesthetic learners and like I said it is one day.
They could be sick as a dog on that day and that affects their results. Anything
could happen so I don’t necessarily think that it is as beneficial towards teacher
assessment, if it is paired over an average then maybe, yes, but its not.

How do you make sense of you child’s NAPLAN?

As a school we actually sit down and analyse the data from the students that
year. The as a staff base we actually look at the data as well and we look at
different areas in which children have exceeded, need extra help in or are
tracking okay. At this school we are generally a high performing school so most
of our results last year were that they were travelling just above average. Top
10% and it is something that we are mindful of. But when you are working in
grade 3 or grade 5 you do structure your curriculum around those types of topics
for those children when it comes to those tests.

How do you provide feedback to your students?

Feedback is a huge thing and that is something that the school is looking at
particular in our strategic plan. Feedback can be given in many different ways
and I find that you don’t realise how much feedback you give. You do it as well.
Going around talking to students saying I really like how you did your work
today maybe next time try this. That is informal feedback having conversations
like this with students. It is also makings, so marking their books and giving them
feedback through written, feedback particularly in a form of a rubric, like if they
are doing an oral presentation or a project, so might come up with criteria
themselves. Reports definitely. You don’t necessarily discuss reposts with the
students but more so with the parents. Some students like to discuss their
reports with their teachers but it is mainly feedback to the parents. Every piece
of work that they do you are constantly looking at what they are doing and you
are constantly giving them back feedback but it is something I would really like
to do more of, like at the end of the lesson reflection time is another measure of
feedback as well, and it is hard to find the time. But constantly roaming around
the classroom is a very effective way of knowing your students abilities.
How do you record your student’s assessment?
The school has an excel spread sheet that we all have to fill in with the raw data, I
tend to take that a little bit further and I tend to analyse on that particular spread
sheet. For example for the CARS data I actually analyse the students that are
having trouble, children who are achieving but need a little bit of support maybe
and children who have got the concept, so the way that I look at that is 80% they
have got lower then 80% to 40% they are still mastering it but kind of got it and
then anything below 40% they really need that support.

What is moderation and how do you do it?

We generally do moderation for writing across the board and we do it with our
report comments and our report marks as well. So what we do initially for
writing moderation, we look at our students writing and we take an example of a
low, medium and a high piece and we discuss as a team what makes each.
Sometimes we find that my low for example might not be the same as another
class and we discuss what we think the low expectation is. So grade 4 will get
together. We have done in the past across the school moderation with writing
which was a project from last year, and we have samples of pieces on teacher
files which shows us what an example of a piece of work, which is a great
resource. But the discussion with your team is huge, so we discuss what is most
important. We look at the Australian curriculum and what we have to teach and
cater for it as well. We moderate with out assessment of reports as well. We
discuss what the level will look like.

What effects do national and international testing have on your

assessment?
We do NAPLAN and ICAS. ICAS we do that in English, reading and maths.
External national and international testing are quit weighted and focused at our
primary school. A lot of our parents are driven and actually want us to succeed
and it is a bit of a culture at the school and there is a bit of a push for good results
and expectations are high which is great but although those programs and
external tests have a high focus. Yet again it is the same kind of focus as NAPLAN
again, its not necessarily a good indication and I mean it’s a great way to show
them how they are tracking in comparison to the rest of the state but again its
only on a one day test.

Do you promote peer and self-assessment?

I use self-assessment in more ways than one. For example I do self-assessment in
the morning on the floor and I get the students to show me with their fingers
how they are feeling, that’s a form of self-assessment. So I get them to assess
themselves and what we did with their writing is that we had a checklist and
children actually went through and corrected their own writing by checking of
have I included punctuation? Have I included a beginning, middle and end of my
narrative? Have I included time sequence words and getting them to look at their
own work and going oh actually I need to do this this and this more, which is
really more powerful then me going you need to do this and when they are
finding it they are going oh okay I need to do that or they will go oh wait what
does that mean again and then they will come and ask me. Likewise we use the
same pro forma where a student will go and moderate, so next doors grade and
my grade we got together and the children paired up with another child from the
other class and compared, moderated and peer assessed their writing. It was
really, really powerful. Sometimes you do peer assessment in spelling but I
would really like to do it more just depends on the day and the children and
whether they are in the zone or not.

Assessment with intellectual disabilities:

In this situation we usual refer to the assistant principal and the psychologist to
get that process started, so it is mainly us asking for referral from them and we
have to also get the parents permission. It is very important and helpful.